Leslie Gooud

Leslie was born in 1902 at Balmain, NSW. As a youngster he sailed the family racing yaught "Unique" with his father and uncle. At 14 years old, he was the youngest skipper on the Harbour. In 1918 they won the Donnelly Trophy in the 14' Championship.

He married Frances Ellen (Nell) Healy in 1928 and they lived at Old Bar, near Taree. Nell had had polio as a child and had a shortened and stiff leg. Charles and Beatrice Forster also lived at Taree and Beatrice helped Nell a lot. Eventually the Forsters were transferred to Auburn. When Les enlisted, Nell contacted Beatrice and asked her to find her a home at Auburn and she moved there. At Auburn, they lived "around the corner" from another relative, George Best, George's daughter, Dorothea, recalls.

Les and Nell had four children:

• Leonie Margaret Gooud, who married David Lacey.
• Charles Kevin Gooud. Charles died at Taree, NSW in 1939.
• John Charles Gooud. John married Betty Sawtell.
• Leslie James Gooud. Leslie married Lorraine Margaret O'Neill and they have three children.

In June 1940 Leslie enlisted and, as a Private in the Australian Army Service Corps 3 Reserve Motor Transport Coy, was sent to Singapore. He was taken POW when Singapore fell in February 1942 and died in Borneo in 1945.  Nellie died in 1991 aged 95.

Parents

Sandakan

In July 1942 Leslie was transferred from Singapore to Sandakan, North Borneo, along with some 1500 others aboard the Yubi Maru, an obsolete Australian cargo ship that had been sold to Japan for scrap. At Sandakan, the prisoners, along with others who arrived later, underfed and subject to grossly inhuman treatment, were forced to build an aerodrome in the jungle for the Japanese.  Punishment for even minor misdemeanors was brutal, often amounting to torture. Medicine was scarce and only available at the whim of the captors, so tropical diseases such as Malaria, Berriberri and Dysentry were rampant.  Although food was available, the prisoners' diet was eventually reduced to 70 gm of rice per day, partly to ensure they would be in no condition to escape or rebel.

The camp's existence was known to the Allies.  It was also known that orders had been issued from Tokyo that all prisoners were to be 'disposed of without trace' in the event of an Allied landing. A rescue was planned for early 1945.   However, after delays and subsequent intelligence indicating (incorrectly) that the prisoners had been moved from Sandakan, the plan was cancelled. Subsequent air attacks on the camp killed some of the prisoners.

With the end of the war in sight, troops and 500 of the fittest prisoners were to be moved from Sandakan to Tuaran, near Jesselton (now Kinabalu), more than 400Km to the west.  455 prisoners left on 28th January, 1945, scrambling through swamps, jungle, and steep mountain tracks, carrying food, ammunition, etc., for their captors.  Two weeks later all except the 114 who died or were killed en route arrived at Ranau, some 265Km from Sandakan, where they were held in another camp.  A second march of 536 left Sandakan on 29 May, 183 of whom reached Ranau on 28th June, by which time only 6 survivors of the first march remained alive.  75 more, some very sick, left on a third march on 15th June, but only 4 were alive by  the time they reached the 40 mile peg.   The AIF landed at Labuan on 10th June.  The last 23 were masacred at Ranau on 13 July.  

2428 Australian and British soldiers died at Sandakan, Ranau, or along the track. Only six, of those who escaped, lived.  This was Australia's greatest single catastrophe of the war.

Leslie Gooud was on the second march and died on 18th June 1945 on the track near Milulu.   Milulu is a high mountain range between the Melio staging post (110 miles from Sandakan) and Tampias (133 miles).   Although his cause of death is recorded as malaria, the Japanese took particular care to ensure that all deaths were recorded as due to natural causes.  No doubt he was suffering from malaria, but it is possible that he was shot or bashed or bayonetted by the guards -- as were many others -- for failing to keep up the required pace.  He is one of the 300 who have no known grave, but is commemorated on a memorial at Labuan.  See Commonwealth War Graves site.  There is now a memorial at Sandakan

Sadly the prisoners' families and relatives were given no information for many months.  Only minimal information was passed by Army censors for publication in the press.  T he War Graves Unit conducted several searches and exhumations, ultimately identifying 2100 of the dead and collecting a few relics.  Although considerable information was amassed for the war crimes trials, this was then archived and was unavailable for 30 years.  Families of identified dead were notified by telegram in November 1945; others received a "carefully worded letter".  There have been suggestions of a cover-up for a bungled rescue attempt.

Some of the Japanese were tried for war crimes and 13 were sentenced to death and some 70 to terms of imprisonment ranging from 2 years to life.  Many more escaped and were never brought to justice.  Those imprisoned were transferred to a Japanese gaol in 1954 and all further prosecutions were dropped in accordance with the terms of the peace treaty with Japan.  No prisoner served longer than 13 years. 

Information from Sandakan - A Conspiracy of Silence,  Lynette Ramsay Silver,  pub. Sally Milner Publishing, Burra Creek, NSW 2620, 1998.